The present invention relates to equipment for handling eggs and more particularly to a combined egg lifter or transfer device and an egg puncturing system.
Increasing use is being made of machinery for soft or hard cooking eggs. This machinery uses a variety of conveyor devices for carrying the eggs into and through the heating or cooking elements. It is necessary to provide for an efficient transfer device to load these egg feeding means rapidly and efficiently. One such device now in wide spread use is a vacuum egg lifter where an array of individual vacuum lifting egg cups are used to transfer the eggs from the supply trays or cartons to the heating or cooking means.
In the present invention, an improved egg lifter or transfer means is disclosed wherein the engagement or transfer of the eggs is accompanied by a simultaneous piercing or puncturing the eggs. This additional puncturing operation improves the heating or cooking operation by reducing the splitting of egg shells during the cooking to an insignificant amount, by reducing the tendency of eggs to float in a boiling liquid, and by providing more uniformly rounded eggs. While the advantages of punching prior to cooking are known, previous applications of the method have been done on an individual egg basis or by piercing devices performing the piercing operation as a separate step involving cumbersome inefficient and expensive separate egg handling and piercing operations.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved egg lifter or transfer device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved vacuum egg lifter for an egg transfer device incorporating an integral egg piercing means.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a combined egg transferring and piercing device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of simultaneously transferring and piercing eggs.
Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice.